WHAT IS ETSY? WHAT IS TeamMIDS?The concept of Etsy was originally to provide a market place for and by artists to sell their work. It was also meant to foster a sense of community among artists of various mediums. It allows artists a venue and a voice without the markups of retail middlemen. TeamMIDS (Miniatures In Dollhouse Scales) serves the miniature artisan community on Etsy and they really are a wonderful and supportive group with so much talent!

However, there are a large number of shops on the site selling 'vintage' items, but that is a seperate category from 'handmade'. Unfortunately, within 'handmade', there have also been several wholesalers of cheaper mass produced miniatures flooding Etsy. Etsy should not become Ebay! TeamMIDS has diligently continued to protect the integrity of the handmade dollhouse category, insisting that something mass produced in a factory- even if it was hand assembled- does NOT COUNT as a handmade artisan item. At TeamMIDS, you wll find unique, quality, limited addition miniatures from devoted artists.

As collectors of handmade original work, all you have to do to bypass commercial items is choose to search in the 'Handmade' category for 'teammids'

Monday, March 1, 2010

It is full of so many great projects and Artist offerings! There are gnomes, tiny gardens, tree houses, and much more. I've been posting the link to the zine all over the place and just this morning sat down to read it myself. To my surprise, on pages 40-43, I'm featured in the "Getting To Know" artist meet and greet article! I was pleased to see my Steampunk, Fantasy, and Egyptian items mentioned as well as my Spooky stuff. They popped in a pic of one of my favorite pieces that I've made, a Steampunk mantle clock.